As we celebrate our second Sunday in Advent, I am beginning to see, and sense, many of the old familiar signs that come with the season. The homes and Churchs are in preparation for the coming season with decorations, there is a feeling of expectation in the air, and I see people beginning to feel a bit more warmth toward others. There is even the familiar scents in the air of crisp cold winds mixed with pine, and sometimes a hint of the spices from pumpkin pies and mulled ciders. All these wonderful things come to us with the season’s beginnings. It’s a beautiful time of year.

Then of course, there is John the Baptist in today’s Gospel, who is also a familiar voice at this time of year. We hear his call to repentance, and in particular his focused commentary toward the Pharisees who he refers to as a brood of vipers. Not exactly the message you’re going to find on too many greeting cards. The thing is, while it may not give us the warm fuzzy feelings that the other sensory stuff I mentioned earlier does, it is still far more vital to our being able to celebrate the season with any sort of grasp on what we are actually celebrating.

We are called now, to prepare the way of the Lord, whose birth into this world in human form we will celebrate during the Christmas season. This requires effort on our part, and it is not always comfortable effort. In our first reading Isaiah speaks of the profound change of behavior of many of God’s creations on that day when the shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse. He speaks of the He whom the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon, and of the truly just judgement he will bring. He speaks of how the wolf will be the guest of the lamb, and of how the leopard will lie down with the kid. He illustrates for us all via  the description of the unlikely camaraderie that will be possible on that day because of the fundamental change of heart that will accompany those who are God’s creations and who seek Christ. This is the call then for each of us, to break past our comfort zone, to do away with our preconceived notions about others, to embrace those who we have normally avoided and show caring and compassion to all, not just those with whom we are comfortable. This is not something we can achieve on our own. We need to pray to God for the grace to accomplish this. We need to be strengthened to take on a task that heretofore has been too difficult for us to achieve. This is the change of heart, that is called for in this season of Advent. To prepare the way of the Lord by a radical change in our thinking and in our behaviors. To pursue salvation by acknowledging our shortcomings and prayerfully pursuing change that will allow us to truly prepare, and then celebrate with meaning the birth of our Lord at Christmas. We cannot do one without the other. We cannot truly celebrate our Lords birth without having also put in the effort.

If we are to heed John’s call as the forerunner of the Lord, we must welcome one another in the way that Saint Paul speaks of in our second reading “Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God”. We need to truly die to self, and in turn welcome and embrace those with whom we have had our differences, those who have been estranged from us during the year(s), to reach out to all who we have formerly ignored or avoided. We need to let all God’s creations know the true meaning of celebrating the birth of His Son at Christmas, by being welcoming to all those created in His image. This is Christmas, this is the essence that the core of our beings, our souls, actually seek whether we consciously realize it or not. I promise you that all the lights, tree’s, presents, and sensory experiences we have created over the years in the name of Christmas will pale in comparison with the true fulfillment of our having prepared ourselves for the birth of Christ in this way that emulates what he was to do for each of us.

The end is near! I remember the first time I saw someone with a sign that said this, as they were parading up and down the street near my office and telling every passerby who would listen that all the signs pointed to the end coming very soon. That was about thirty years ago. While I do agree with them, that the end will one day come, it is absolutely not for us to know, or really even to speculate when that might be. It will come in Gods own time, and as part of His ultimate plan for salvation.

In our Gospel reading today, our Lord startles his disciples a bit by telling them about the destruction of the temple that is to come, and how their will not be one stone left upon another. For them, this sounded very much like the end of things, and they responded immediately wanting to know when this would happen and what signs to look for to foretell its coming. On the whole this is a pretty understandable reaction, given the significance of the temple to the Jewish people. It was a place of worship, but it was also far more than that, it was a place of identity for a people who were living under the occupation of the Roman empire, and who were very much afraid of losing their identity as a people and a nation. The temple represented to them a powerful physical manifestation of who they thought they were as a people. The thing is, whether for the Jewish people of that time, or all of us now, our identity as a people, and as believers in God, is not predicated on any physical construct or manifestation. We place far too much significance on things like this, because as human beings, we seem to crave comfort from the imagined permanence of such things. Whether they are a temple or church building, a city designated as the capital of a nation, or even our own bodies as the personal structure that we hold dear. Yet none of these is really representative of who and what we are. We are Gods people, and our focus needs to be on Him alone, and on maintaining ourselves in such a way as to be more concerned with His plan, and for salvation than anything else in our lives.  Temples whether made of stone, or wood, or flesh will come and go, the only permanence is achieved in belief, love, and faith in our Lord.  

In our second reading today, Saint Paul tells us of something else that we need to be cautious of, and that can be a byproduct of focusing too much on things beyond our control. That is the tendency to begin too much analysis of others and feeling as though we need to point out to them all that they are doing wrong, sometimes in a rather public way.  He speaks of those whom he labels as busy bodies. I can’t even imagine what he would think if he had a chance to experience social media today. It sometimes seems to be the ultimate platform for busy bodies, and those who would rather spend their time critiquing the actions of others rather than focusing on their own conduct. It’s easy to fall into this kind of behavior, it requires less effort overall because it does not necessitate change within ourselves, only the verbalizing or typing of our analysis of the actions of another. This is something that can be incredibly toxic and is vastly different than sharing with someone privately a concern we have for them as our brother or sister in Christ because we seek to see them on the path to salvation. It is true we are called to hold one another accountable, and if we do not do so, we are not caring for others as we should, but this must be done with discretion and empathy toward the other person. What we should seek to achieve is loving correction, and it is what we should be open to ourselves as humble followers of Christ.

We are all seeking out a road to salvation, and our journey is long and filled with ups and downs, but it should not be a lonely one. We have our Lord who is with us every step of the way, and we should have one another if we stay constructively focused on the present and strive together to assemble our own temple structure built of the loving bonds between those of us who as living stones comprise the body of Christ.

The Lord loves all things and all peoples that His hand created. This does not change, either in time or circumstance. As our first reading points out to us, God would not have created anything, or anyone that He did not care for. His will is for all to come to Him, and to know him, no matter who they are, or what they have done in the past, He will welcome them with open arms when they turn to Him with all their heart.

In our Gospel today, we hear the account of Zacchaeus who was the chief tax collector, and so a man of both position and wealth in that day and age. The thing is, the wealth came to him by what were likely somewhat less than honorable means. In those days, someone who collected taxes would also likely add a bit more to the bill to provide themselves with a bit more compensation than just their salaries. The practice was very common and pretty much everyone knew that it was taking place, and it certainly did nothing to further endear the tax collectors to the populace. It was bad enough that the tax collectors were viewed as collaborators with the Roman occupying force, against God’s own people. Yet even for someone involved in all this, there was still hope.

Zacchaeus knew well his guilt and did not try to hide what he had done when he encountered Jesus. There were no excuses, no attempts at justification, just a simple repentant statement that outlined what he planned to do to try to make amends for his actions. This is what our Lord is looking for from all of us. We are all His children, so we are already greatly valued by Him, yet there are times when we fall short in our thoughts, conduct, and inclinations of the heart.  When this happens, our Lord who knows all, is simply looking for us to follow the same example. No excuses, no blathering on with attempts at justifying our actions, put away all pretense and instead cloth ourselves with humility. We need to seek to look beyond any crowd or obstacle that that obscures our view of the living Christ. If necessary, climb the Sycamore, do whatever it takes to be able to clearly focus on our Lord. He in turn will certainly notice us and ask us to come to Him and invite Him into our homes and our lives. Salvation can then come to our house as well, because like Zacchaeus, we too are descendants of Abraham whom our Lord seeks in order to save what was lost.

We hear about it virtually every day, sometimes there are actual acts of violence that pervade our news, sometimes it is simply stories that show either a general apathy that people display toward one another, sort of a casual indifference that still causes others considerable pain. Sometimes we simply hear about the plight of those who        perhaps live in conditions that we would consider intolerable, and we ask ourselves how can our Lord allow all this to happen? We reach out to God and ask these questions, and sometimes point an accusing finger in His direction. The thing is, when do we get around to asking the more salient question – how can we allow this to happen?

Our Lord gave us what is perhaps the greatest gift that a creator could give to the created – a freedom of will that is unencumbered by any influence or coercion. We are trusted with a great deal of responsibility not only for ourselves, but also for those around us. I sometimes wonder if perhaps we have been given too much credit for our ability to exercise such tremendous responsibility. Yet I also know that with such granted freedom, comes the potential to grow into beings who are more worthy of being entrusted with so much.

In many respects right now, I believe it would be accurate to refer to us as unprofitable servants, because very often we are inclined to do only the minimum that is required of us to pursue our Lord’s teachings. We do what we are obliged to do through what we read in scripture, and in following Gods commandments. The thing is, where does this really leave us in terms of the fulfilling to our greatest potential the responsibility that we were each entrusted with when we were created in Gods image? Not very far along I suspect. Our Creator, like any good parent, knows our potential better than we know it ourselves, and if we really ponder it, it is painful to think about what He must feel when He sees us neglect one another, being subtly cruel to one another, and apathetic in our love for one another. We don’t necessarily break a commandment, but we certainly don’t fulfill our potential to be part of Gods salvific plan, or even His plan to allow for each of us to be provided for on the most basic levels to sustain our existence here on earth.

How can we sometimes ask for faith because we want to understand and bond to the things of Heaven, when we cannot even exercise the gifts, we have already been given? It’s like a small child asking for increased responsibility and freedom, when they cannot fulfill the most basic chores that their parents ask of them. Yet our Lord is unfathomably generous to us even here, when we ask with our hearts aligned to truly try to understand more of Gods ways, and even though we have so many failures in our past, our Lord looks beyond these with affection and optimism and allows us to try to strive for even greater things than we are likely capable of comprehending. Why? Again, I suspect that it has to do with potential that He sees in us. The potential to grow into people who can care for one another, not out of compulsion because of what we are commanded to do, but because our hearts guide us, and we actually desire to see others better off. If we can accomplish that we have succeeded in placing ourselves behind the needs of those around us. We have been able to love at the level of Agape – the same selfless love that Jesus Christ showed toward us. We then stop crying out about the injustices and poverties we see, and we instead silently resolve to put our energies and love toward changing things. Our faith, though perhaps small like that mustard seed, is there nonetheless to allow us to simply trust in His plan and be a part of it out of desire.

If we sometimes feel like there is conflict within us, it need not be surprising. We are each of us made up of two halves that as Saint Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians, are very much at odds with one another. Very often I think we forget this about ourselves, I sometimes hear how many of our less than desirable behaviors are attributable to our fallen nature due to original sin, and there is certainly truth to that, but that is not the whole story. There is also the continual conflict that is a part of each one of us, because we are beings comprised of two diametrically opposed halves. One is physical (the flesh) the other is spiritual (our souls), and they have vastly different agendas, goals, and desires. Our fleshly selves are only concerned with the realities of the physical world, and how to achieve survival and physical comforts. Our spiritual selves see beyond both the physical constraints of our earthly bodies, and but also beyond the boundaries of the properties of this universe, and look into what lies beyond, into the realm of God and the eternity we have been promised.

In our first reading, as well as in our Gospel, there are some very revealing examples of this conflict within us, and how it sometimes manifests.  Wanting to take care of those we love, is something that is at our core, and is both a natural and admirable thing to want to do. However, as our Lord points out, there are limits even to these things that seem so admirable in terms of their importance relative to serving our Lord first and foremost. Our Lord wants us to love those around us, and we are told specifically to honor our father and mother, and yet He says that those who look to what will be left behind when they commit to following Him, are not fit for the Kingdom of God. This may seem a bit contradictory at first, but it is more a matter of how we place our relationship with Him in relative importance to others we are close to. Our Lord is not telling us not to care about them, or to abandon them. He is telling us that what we actually seek in this life, will not be obtained through them, but only through Him, and that He as God, is the one to whom we owe our all. We love those around us, but it cannot compare with the love that we should direct toward our Lord who gave all of Himself for our salvation. Not even our parents, who brought us into this world physically, can compare in terms of what has been given each of us through Him. The reverse is also quite true, those who are parents know that their children are loved and are dear to them, yet they are called to love the Lord in an even deeper way. If we think about this, it is very natural, our Lord gave us our parents, He gave us our children, should we not show the source of such great gifts the love and respect appropriate? What is greater, the gift, or the one who gave it?

As we grow as people, it seems like we gain more in the ability to attune ourselves to our spiritual nature. We become more introspective, we have attained a point in life where we have experienced the physical realities, both good, and not so good, so that we now have the frame of reference to contrast them against the desires that still possess us for something that is beyond the physical, and that shows itself as more important relative to those experiences that are part of the more physical aspect of our nature. We seem to gain a truer sense of what is actually going to ultimately satisfy us, such as accepting on a deeper level the selfless love of God that He has always offered to each of us, perhaps gaining more detachment from focus on ourselves, the gradual elimination of over attachment to things of this earth, and the elevation of our striving for a oneness with our Creator. These things do not keep us from loving or caring for others, far from it, they do however place God where He belongs, as the first thought we have each day, as the most important One in our lives, and as the One that we love most of all through an intimacy that can only be achieved once some of our other competing priorities are let go. I think that it is when we get to this point, we truly begin to follow our Lord wherever He goes, and within ourselves we prepare a place where He can reside and rest his head.

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-egtnn-125c00f

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” On the surface, the statement seems quite plain, Our Lord is telling us outright that this is the requirement, this is the way that we can truly express our love for Him, to obey His word. We seem to have a great deal of trouble with this though, and so the real question that we should be asking ourselves is “Why on earth wouldn’t we?”. This is God we are talking about; the source and wisdom of these commandments who is beyond reproach or questioning if we have any sense whatsoever. Ah, but therein is the catch – do we indeed have the “common sense” to heed this.

Let’s face it, “common sense” seems to be anything but common these days. We are so full of ourselves that we try to question pretty much everything because we are under the impression that we have input that is worth hearing and being heeded by pretty much everyone else, and this seems to include God as well. We question existence as a whole, and often seem to want to attribute it to pretty much anything other than God – my personal favorite is the term “quantum fluctuation” that is all the rage these days among physicists for explaining creation, it basically means a mathematical error, and they would rather attribute our fabric of reality to this, than admitting that God might have had something to do with it. If it isn’t bad enough that we can’t even acknowledge God as the Creator, when most of the scientific evidence (particularly statistical) points to God as such, I guess we really shouldn’t be surprised. We can’t seem to even come to a sensible consensus on some of the more mundane questions like our own self positioning in society and individual rights (we spend WAY too much time focusing on us), or those of basic morals like whether or not it’s actually wrong to kill another human being who is in a vulnerable state (you can apply this one to abortion, the death penalty, and euthanasia for the aged). All these things that should be plain to pretty much anyone, all seem to be in question these days because we think that the laws which God defined and have existed for so long prior to our ever coming on the scene now all of a sudden require our scrutiny and input. In short, we are pathetically arrogant and have entirely too much time on our hands when this is where we are focusing seemingly so much of our energies to try to reassess. Our Lord had all this covered long ago, and all we need to do is listen to His commands, not his suggestions, not his concepts, not his rhetoric – His commands. He is God – we are not, it is just that simple if we want an explanation as to why we should take Him at his word.

Now don’t misunderstand me, I am not suggesting a mindless acceptance, nor a lack of using our God given intellect to ponder some of the tougher questions in life. What I am suggesting is to use ALL the gifts that we were given, and to do so rather judiciously. Our intellect is a wonderful thing, but should be bridled with appropriate humility, and should be exercised in conjunction with the very gift that God bestowed on us, and that we celebrate this day – the gift of the Holy Spirit. This advocate that God gave us to guide us, and to draw us into intimacy with Him so that we may know more closely His word, His commands, and be guided by His plan. This same spirit that came down upon the disciples at Pentecost, is the very spirit that can dwell within each one of us, if we can just get over ourselves, and allow Him in. We can know peace in our world view, in our self-perception, in our interpretation of all the seemingly complicated issues that we can then safely entrust to His wisdom. The Holy Spirit can accomplish all of this and more within us, though it is up to us to freely accept it and allow it to dwell within us and guide us just as it did Jesus Disciples when they received it on that first Pentecost and founded the Church as we know it by going out and fearlessly proclaiming the Gospel message. Their task was daunting, and the cost was great, but they knew Gods peace through the Spirit dwelling in them. We can know that same peace, and if there is a commodity that is, I think, even more rare than the “common sense” I mentioned earlier, it is a truly peaceful spirit that we all seem to crave, and yet so few seem to possess. I pray that we all embrace the Spirit this day, and every day, and welcome our Lord into our very selves through this. Peace be with all of you.    

When I hear of the Ascension of our Lord, I can’t help but think of the feelings that the Apostles must have experienced. He had already told them, that if they really loved Him, they would be glad for him to be going to the Father, and yet, there is also that human inclination to miss those whom we have grown close to by having them around us each day. I have no doubt that when they really thought about it, His disciples were indeed happy for Him, even if they would miss having Him there with them. This is part of the same kind of selfless love that He displayed for all of us when He dies on the cross for us.

Yet there is much more to this in terms of why we should rejoice that our Lord returned home to the Father. First of all, without doing so, He would not have been able to send us the Advocate, or Holy Spirit. He was quite specific in what He told us about this, and for each of us, the Holy Spirit is the grace that allows us to both endure life’s challenges, but also lets us grow as followers of Christ by working within each of us to allow us to mature as members of the body of Christ. Each time we are able to move a bit closer to our Lords example, is the Spirit at work within us.

There is one aspect though, that is perhaps a bit less talked about, and yet we innately know how important it is. That is, that when Jesus ascended to the Father, He did so to take His place at the right hand of the Father, so that He might continually intercede on our behalf, and ask the Fathers graces and forgiveness for each one of us. There is literally no other way that we have any hope of entering the Kingdom of Heaven, it is only through Christ who is the narrow gate that we must pass through. If we were to live our lives in as perfect a manner as is humanly possible, focusing on nothing else but our faith, it still would not be enough. We must understand that it is only possible for us to enter Gods Kingdom through Jesus, who both mediates for, and expiates our sins – all of them, those we were born with, and those we accumulate through life. So, you see we have a very good reason to rejoice that our Lord ascended back to the Father. I think the disciples were keenly aware of this, and it must have provided them with some consolation. Yet they also awaited with eagerness the gift of the Spirit with Jesus promised them, as they knew that they were to be charged with a great task, but were still very much afraid at that point, and were in fact in hiding for fear for their lives. This would all change ten days later, and they would undergo a radical metamorphosis that is only possible through the Spirit of God working in them. We too have access to this same Spirit, and if we allow the Holy Spirit into our lives, the change can be just as profound.

It is tempting to think sometimes how wonderful it would be to have Jesus here among us each day, and yet in light of what we know from His teachings, I think we have more reason to be glad that He is with the Father, and that for that reason we have hope. Our Lord, as always, has the better plan.

We are all God’s sheep. No matter who you are, where you are from, what we have done in life – either good or bad, we are His. He desires a relationship with each and every one of us, and He has a plan for each and every one of us. How often the description of sheep has seemed so appropriate in my own life. I can recall many years of my life wandering around aimlessly, without really knowing where I was going. I did not really know my Shepherd, and yet after all of that, and when He knew I was ready for it, He placed me in a position to learn about Him and to begin to love Him. It took a long time; perhaps I had a dose of mule in my particular sheep lineage, because I was certainly stubborn enough in my ways. Yet my shepherd was patient and never left me. I didn’t appreciate all this then, but I look back on it now with the benefit of both hindsight and a bit more understanding, and I can see His influence quite clearly.

Saint Paul and Barnabas certainly encountered stubbornness in dealings with some of the sheep of Israel who they dealt with in Antioch, and who were intent on derailing their efforts at evangelization out of sheer jealousy for the acknowledgement they were receiving from the people. It was of course appropriate for them to speak to God’s chosen people first, but when it was clear that they would not listen and were even taking steps to keep others from hearing and obeying, they re-focused their message to a more fruitful audience. These were the gentiles who were overjoyed at the idea of being able to receive God’s word and be brought to salvation. These unlikely recipients of God’s grace were fertile ground for the seed of His word to flourish because they possessed something the Jews of that area did not: humility. They knew they were not God’s chosen people and had never before really pondered being able to have a relationship with Him. When Paul and Barnabas approached them, they saw their words for what they really were, a great gift and invitation that they were overjoyed to receive. Where no hope had previously existed, there was now light, and joy, and the hope of salvation. You see these people had previously not been unaware of the God of Israel, but they saw Him as just that, a God for the Israelite people and not accessible to the gentiles, so this new revelation was profound for them.

To this day, there are those who do not see God as being accessible, or even possible in their lives because, while they have some awareness of Him, they do not know of His desire for all to come to Him. They do not grasp that He is for all people, and that He wants them, personally. Each person is an individual desire of our Lord’s. It is sometimes easy to lose sight of that, even for those who have a relationship with Him. It is something that we need to remind ourselves of when we feel ourselves beginning to slip and wander away from the rest of the flock. Our Shepherd has not lost sight of us, He watches and calls us to come back, but we need to listen for that call, and then most importantly, obey that call. I can think of no greater comfort than being one of the ones that our Lord looks after so attentively, and yet also grants the dignity of a truly free will to, so that when we express our love for Him, it is a true love that can only be given through complete freedom. Yet this freedom is paired with a love for us, and a Father’s guidance so that we will use it wisely if we are open to His wisdom. There is no manipulation with love, but there is concern, and loving guidance that is offered, not forced. That is our Lord’s nature, and that is why we must look, and live, with an open heart.

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-m52k2-121eb1c

How often do we take our faith and our relationship with God for granted? We should in fact be grateful for this every day of our lives, because without it, we would each be as completely lost as the prodigal son that we about in todays Gospel.

When we are in a relationship with God, we have treasures and blessings that come to us each day. They come in the form of our Lord watching over us, guiding us, and consoling us, even when we don’t realize or acknowledge it. Our lack of awareness makes these blessings no less real, but it does make us more inclined to take them for granted. We simply think of them as the usual events in the course of our day or week.

In this time of Lent, I think it is appropriate for us to take the time to ponder this a bit more closely, and perhaps demonstrate our increased awareness and gratitude to our Lord through our Lenten observances and prayers that express our thanks more appropriately to a Father who stands by us through all our trials, as well as our occasions of indifference.

I think that perhaps it is indifference that is most painful to our Lord. It likely was to the father in the case of the prodigal son. You see when his son asked for his inheritance in that manner, he was also saying in the implied communication that he considered his father already dead in some respects, and simply wanted to take what was his and leave. It is hard enough for a parent to cope with their child leaving home, but to have them leave in this manner, was I think particularly painful. Yet when the son returned, before he even had a chance to speak the words of repentance that he had rehearsed, the father runs to greet him with unbridled joy, love, and affection, and no recognition of his child’s callousness. So, it is with our Father in heaven when we don’t take the time to acknowledge him. It must be terribly lonely at those times when we are too busy to bother showing Him our love and affection, no matter how much He gives us each day to show His love, we sometimes go for a long time leaving him out of our lives and our feelings. Yet when we do finally come to him with repentance and humility, He runs to greet us with joy, love, and affection.

It is also important not to forget the older son when discussing this Gospel, to me he represents perhaps our occasional tendency to not look with empathy on others who don’t yet have such a strong relationship with the Father. It can be easy to write off others who do not share us in faith, and who are still struggling through life without the love and support of the Father. Can you take a moment and reflect on how hard this is for them? It often manifests in behaviors that we find both objectionable and at odds with what our Lord teaches us. It can be easy to fall into the trap of not looking at those who are trapped in this kind of existence without love, yet they are every bit as much a child of God as anyone else, and it grieves our Father to see them struggling in this way. He looks to us as their brothers and sisters to help them. Any parent knows how frustrating it is to look at one’s children when they are at odds with one another and not being able to get them to mend their relationship. It is up to us to help our brothers and sisters to find their way home, and to then allow our Father the joy of seeing them return. That is what we are called to do in this brief life that we have here on earth, it is our call and vocation, and it is perhaps something to meditate on during this season of repentance and change.

Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-5pyig-11e1549